Truck Parking Effects Us All… Even the Carriers !!

by wtfcanada2015@gmail.com | Jan 2, 2018 | BLOG

It’s estimated that we have over 300,000 truck drivers in Canada. Yet we are seeing very few answering this survey. The lack of Truck Parking effects everyone in the industry. Carriers we need you to do your part too !! Take the time to complete the survey, get it out to your drivers. Send a satellite message, post it on your company website, in your employee only forums, why not send them an email with the links. Have you posted it on your Facebook page ??   Contact Ted Harvey: ted.harvey@spr.ca  and get a flyer to put up in your terminals.  All drivers who travel through Ontario are encouraged to participate in this survey. Even our American sisters and brothers of the highway.

The lack of Truck parking has Major Economic Impacts on The Trucking Industry. In their work, SPR has consolidated considerable research, by bodies such as the American Transportation Research Institute which indicates that the lack of parking costs the trucking sector hundreds of millions of dollars every year. Similarly, an excellent study recently published by Trucker Path indicated substantial costs to North American trucking, of over $5.1 billion, [including Canada], comprised of $500 million in lost profits, $500 million in added maintenance, $1,500 million in lost wages [trucker time], $2.6 Billion in wasted fuel, plus stress impacts detrimental to recruitment and sustaining the trucking workforce. Trucker Path estimated direct costs at $ 7,200 per driver per year, and $720 per driver in lost profits.

These costs of parking shortages impact all segments of the trucking sector, including those directly affected — companies and drivers — and also those serving trucking, in training, recruiting, insurance, leasing ,parts and services — since the total trucking ‘economic pie’ is reduced by lack of parking.

The Driver Survey: Their survey of truck drivers — their main method — has obtained 800+ driver responses. This is good, but they need at least 3,000 driver responses to meet the Ministry’s information needs and bring about real change.

SPR is appealling for your help !! Drivers they  need you to complete the survey (deadline is February 28th).

English : http://spr.ca/trucking/survey.htm
French: http://spr.ca/camion/sondage.htm

Benefits: The survey is providing very detailed and rich data. Nearly all drivers who come to the survey complete the entire questionnaire even though it is relatively detailed.

For example: the 800+ drivers responding so far have provided over 5,600 ratings of parking difficulty on 25 highway segments. (each driver rates an average of 8 segments of the 401 or other 400 series or secondary highways). This will tell the Ministry where parking is most needed. The same drivers have evaluated 70+ individual truck stops (each driver rating an average of 8 truck stops), so that about 16,000 ratings of truck stops have been obtained. More than half of the drivers report economic losses, stress, anger or loss of sleep.

Other Findings: SPR has recently prepared a report on their consultations which includes submissions from a number of associations, companies and municipalities. Four submissions are of particular interest, from: Ontario Trucking Association, the Women’s Trucking Federation of Canada , ITS, and the US-based OOIDA [all available on request contact Ted Harvey at ted.harvey@spr.ca. They all make the case: that the truck parking shortage is severe, particularly in central Ontario.